Andrew Cuomo's numbers fall after gun bill

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s approval rating is down by double digits weeks after the Democrat signed sweeping new gun control legislation, a new poll Wednesday says.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, Cuomo’s approval rating is at 59 percent, with 28 percent disapproving, down from last month’s sky-high 74 percent approval, with 13 percent disapproving of his performance in office.

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Those numbers come after Cuomo scored a broad gun control package that included a strengthened version of the state’s assault weapons ban, a step he took in the wake of the December shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn.

“With approval ratings that consistently topped 70 percent, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had the political capital to spend when he set out to pass the toughest gun control laws in the nation,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “It is possible that the gun law cost him some of that political capital, but a 2-1 job approval rating still makes him the envy of most governors.”

Voters in non-gun homes approve of the governor 68 percent to 19 percent, the survey showed, while voters in households with a gun disapprove 50 percent against 40 percent approval.

Republican support for Cuomo — who is often mentioned as a 2016 Democratic presidential contender — dipped sharply this month, dropping from 68 percent approval-18 percent disapproval in December, to 44 percent-43 percent. He also took a tumble among Democrats, where his approval-disapproval numbers are 74 percent-14 percent, down from December’s 82 percent-9 percent. Cuomo’s numbers among independents clocked in at 54 percent-32 percent, a dip from December’s 70 percent-12 percent approval-disapproval rating from that group.